Sous Vide Chicken Thighs

There are many ways to make chicken using the method of Sous Vide. For me the best use it to cook bone-in, skin-on thighs that can be finished on the grill or in the broiler. I also like to make Sous Vide chicken when I want to make a chicken based sauce because once the chicken is done cooking in a closed bag for four hours, the juices left over are very flavorful.

While I prefer bone-in, skin-on thighs, that’s not what my grocery story had in stock this morning, so the images are of boned and skinned chicken thighs that I could fit 5-6 per bag. Since chicken pieces can vary greatly depending on several variables, I am just including an ingredient list, the amount of each ingredient you use is a personal choice

Ingredients

• Chicken thighs – ~5 lbs
• Herb de Provence – to taste
• Fresh garlic – smashed
• Kosher salt – to taste
• Pepper – to taste
• Sous Vide bags – I use vacuum bags

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Process

1. Mise en Place – gather and measure the ingredients you intend to use.
2. Set Sous Vide water temperature to 165 deg. F., and the timer for four hours. I usually start soaking the chicken while the water is heating up.
3. Prep both sides of the chicken.
   1. Salt to taste – I use Kosher salt because it does not contain iodine and because it holds up well to the high temp soak. I also like the coarser grain, easier to sprinkle.
   2. Pepper to taste – I use freshly ground pepper corns
   3. Herb de Provence – I don’t over use, just enough to give you an essence of rosemary and thyme.
   4. Crushed garlic cloves – generally only on the back side since there is no skin. It’s important that you crush the garlic, not only to better release flavor, but also to gain the health benefits of garlic; only achieved when garlic is crushed.

4. Put chicken in Sous Vide bags – I use vacuum bags, they’re thicker and don’t contain any harmful chemicals that can get released from cheaper freezer bags. Sometime I vacuum seal the bags, but not always. To get the air out, the best way is to submerge the open bag up to the top of the chicken then fold tightly and clip. If you have enough bags in the water bath, they’ll stay upright.
5. cover the top of the water bath container to help retain heat.
6. Let chicken cook for four hours and then either finish on a grill or in the broiler, or serve as is. If you are cooking to have chicken to reheat during the week, retain the soaking bags after discarding the garlic and chicken juice.